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BW 7- The teaser

Mike sent an email to the beta testers today- Beta testing is done, the muzzle is off the testers, and we're free to talk about it. I assume that meant on-line too, which is great, cause I can't say enough good about it.

According to Mike's last email, the files for BW 7 have gone to the cd-producer, and it should be available soon. They'll make an official anouncement next week.

It's got some major changes that take a little getting used to. I complained at first, but over the two months or so of beta testing, I have grudgingly come around to realizing that they were right to make them. I think it's great!

My favorite new stuff-
1) The new notes/editor is everything you've dreamed of. Keep chapter AND verse notes simultaneously. Make pop-up scripture references and hyperlinks to the web, or other files or programs. Insert pictures. Type in Unicode.

2) Grammars! There are a bunch of new grammatical resources for Aramaic, Hebrew, and Greek. Some are standard (like Metzger's textual commentary on the Greek New Testament) and others are new modules (like Blass and Degrunner's NT Grammar).

3) Every reference in the grammars, lexicons, etc., is a pop-up now, and you can customize two sets of Bibles to pop-up when you mouse over the reference (ie. I can mouse over and pop up the WTT, NRS, and KJV, or hold shift, mouse over and pop up WTT, LXT, TAR, etc.) This makes the lexicons very powerful. Great stuff.

4) Tabs- The command center now has 12 tabs on it, each one maintining its own search, verse, and version history. Forget new results windows. This is much much better.

5)External links- You can edit the right-click menus and send information out of the program. This means I now have a two-click process to open commentaries to a particular verse in other programs. I have a two-click process to look up a KJV word in Webster's 1828 and the Oxford English dictionary on-line.

There's tons of other new stuff. New databases, new tools, new functionality, ease of use.

I would list things in it, but I think people will be shocked at how much new stuff there is in BW7 (how's that for cruel?). Actually, you might want to get out a paper and pencil. I think there might be more new in BW7 than was previously in the program before.

Oh did I mention Philo? Of course you knew that was coming already
Greek diagrams of the NT? Man, the list will go on. Stay tuned for next week

Sounds like the BW crew has outdone themselves - again. I won't be passing this up.

Originally Posted by Ben Spackman

It's got some major changes that take a little getting used to. I complained at first, but over the two months or so of beta testing, I have grudgingly come around to realizing that they were right to make them. I think it's great!

Ben, It's all good. If it took a Beta-Tester two months, It'll probably take this old dog two years; but I'm up for learning some new tricks.

BW7 editor works like buttah

Originally Posted by Dan Phillips

How about the issue of converting existing user-generated comments, notes, from the Constant Crasher version to the new improved version?

Shouldn't be a problem. I stopped using the editor in BW6 because it was so unreliable. The BW7 editor not only has auto-save, but I've not once had it crash on me and I've been doing all the things I used it to do in BW6 plus more. I love it. Not only that you can convert the Greek into Unicode making your notes much more transferrable than before. All in all, BW7 does a great job to take a step forward. Not everything is Unicode yet because not all computers are yet good with dealing w Unicode, but for those who want to use it, the steps are there.

For instance. I just finished reading book one of Plato's republic. I used the editor to keep notes as I was reading it. I have 43 pages of notes and not once did I have a crash happen while notating. This included functions like copying from Mozilla's FireFox and Copying from the LSJ dictionary in BW as well as old fashioned typing. The proof is in the pudding they say.

Really my only complaint now is that I need another monitor because BW7 has so much info at your finger tips and you want access to it always at once you may find you'll be upgrading to a bigger monitor with BW as well just to get the most for your money And the BW folks have worked really really hard to integrate all of the material (grammars, lexicons, etc.). Did I mention the ability to do cross-searching in Greek between Philo, Josephus, and the Greek NT? That either was not in BW6 or very difficult to construct. Now it's just a click (ok, so it might be two).

Oh boy oh boy oh boy!

I can't help but to chime in on this one. I don't know how much the upgrade will cost, but I know that it will be well worth it. With version 7, BibleWorks will be the ONLY biblical software package that comes with Philo, Josephus, the Apostolic Fathers and the LXX/NT all in morphologically tagged format as a part of the base package! In every other database out there, you have to pay extra for the basics! In BW7 they come with the program right out of the box!

For those of you who are itching to get your own tools into a format that BibleWorks can use, they have also made a way for users to create their own CHM help file based resources that will integrate with the Lexical & Grammatical Help just like any other CHM help file resource created by BibleWorks (e.g., the Waltke & O'Connor or the Wallace grammars).

I can't help but to chime in on this one. I don't know how much the upgrade will cost, but I know that it will be well worth it. With version 7, BibleWorks will be the ONLY biblical software package that comes with Philo, Josephus, the Apostolic Fathers and the LXX/NT all in morphologically tagged format as a part of the base package! In every other database out there, you have to pay extra for the basics! In BW7 they come with the program right out of the box!

What's that? Play it again, Sam, play it again. Josephus, Philo, Apostolic Fathers, LXX and NT all Greek, all morphologically tagged, all part of the main program? Ah yes, that's why i love BW